


Shattered Looking Glass

by Starlightspixie



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Alice in Wonderland Fusion, Gen, I don't know if I should tag pairings, If you're looking for romance this might not be the fic for you, Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, Kihyun is Alice, M/M, None of the mx members die though, Other, References to past deaths, Since they're really only there if you squint
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2020-10-10 06:17:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20523338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starlightspixie/pseuds/Starlightspixie
Summary: The Yoo family has been plagued with a hereditary 'curse', affecting a single person every few generations, and only once the last person to be driven mad has passed away. Kihyun and his cousin are under constant supervision, their parents fearful of either of them beginning to show signs of the curse - signs that become difficult to ignore when Kihyun meets a man with long, white rabbit ears, who keeps calling him 'Alice'.





	1. Prologue

“Do you want me to read you a story before bed?”

“Yeah!” The little brunet wiggled a little from where he was under the blanket on the couch, watching the elderly woman make her way to the bookshelf on the other side of the room.

“Of course you do. Which one should I read you tonight? The Seafoam Princess, the Tortoise and the Hare?” she looked back at him as she listen off the titles, amused by the pout he had etched across his features.

“Granny, you’ve read those to me a million times, they’re so boring! I want a new story!” The old woman laughed softly, stretching up to pull down a box that had been collecting dust on the top of the bookshelf. 

“I see. Perhaps I should tell you a special story.” The brunet’s frown faded as she stepped back over to him, sitting by his feet.

“Special?” he echoed, looking to the box as her fingers traced through the dust that had settled on the lid, the brunet leaning forward to make out the rabbit she had drawn.

“Yes. It’s a very special story that my mother told me about when I was little. It’s been passed down through the family for years, but only very special children can hear it.”

“Did you tell mommy the story?” The old woman looked over at him, the little boy seeing something that he didn’t understand flicker through her eyes before her attention was back on the box.

“I wanted to. Your mother is very dear to me, but there are some people in this family that don’t want people to know about the story. Your uncle heard me trying to tell your mom this story, and he was very mad.”

“Why would people be mad about a story?” he asked, the corner of her lips quirking up, though the rest of her expression seemed far from happy when she spoke again. 

“Once there was a land, no one knew about other than those who lived there.”

“Like an island?” Granny giggled.

“Yes, like an island I guess, and it was oh so beautiful. Flowers in more colors than you would be able to name, two giant castles- one snow white, the other a wonderful deep red like an apple.”

“A monkey’s butt is red, red like an apple,” the little boy giggled, Granny reaching over to tickle him.

“Yes. Everyone in the land knew of each other, and lived in harmony, even if the kings and queens of the castles didn’t talk to one another.”

“Why didn’t they talk to one another?” The question made her pause.

“No one knew. Things had always been that way, so they didn’t see a reason to change. Until one day a strange creature was found in the center of the forest – a little girl by the name of Alice. No one knew how she had gotten there, and she was just as surprised as the others in the land when she ran into them. She wandered through the land, amazed by all the sights throughout it, a truly wondrous land. Do you know what she named it?” Granny asked, opening the box to pull out a tattered journal, held closed by a worn string.

The little boy shook his head, eyes fixed on the book wondering if he had seen it before as he felt a pull towards it. He was having a hard time keeping his hands under the blanket, giving in with only a moment’s hesitation. His fingers immediately wrapped around journal, and he heard Granny laugh softly, letting it slip from her hands into his. He tugged at the string, unwinding it from around the journal, opening it to the front page, head tilting a little as his eyes scanned over the carefully written letters on the worn page.

“Wonder… land…” he read, blinking a couple of times when the page blurred and something heavy tugged at the back of his mind. The feeling rushed through his arms and down his chest, reaching his toes, leaving the dark haired boy feeling almost dizzy with how tired he suddenly felt. Turning his attention up to Granny, he was just barely able to make out her nod, letting out a big yawn after.

“Yes, my little Kihyunnie. Wonderland.” The name was the last thing the little boy heard before his eyes slid closed and a vividly colorful world of dreams took over.


	2. How Doth the Crocodile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It had been nearly a decade since he had been on the other side of the estate wall. He was going to find out what was beyond it no matter the cost.

_“He’s spacing out, not completing his studies… The other night when he was supposed to be going over his piano lesson his eyes kept wandering around the room. What if he’s acting like this because he’s-”_

_“We don’t know that, and if you jump to those conclusions things are only going to get worse.”_

_“I know, I know, it’s just… what if he’s… Everyone says it happens in the third or fourth generation after, and no one from my generation showed any signs. We would have by now… What if he starts showing signs while he’s at school?”_

_“Then we’ll pull him out and be able to monitor him.”_

_“Won’t he ask questions?”_

_“People get home-schooled all the time; we’ll just act like it’s a normal thing.”_

_“What’s ‘home-schooled’ mean?” The pair sitting at the table jolted, looking back at Kihyun slowly, the little boy finding something about their smiles strange._

_“It’s where you don’t have to get up early and ride on a big bus with those mean children that tease you about your height,” his mother replied, getting up from her chair to kneel down in front of him, reaching up to stroke his cheek._

_“But if I don’t ride the bus, then I have to wait until lunch time to trade things for lunch with Yoongi,” Kihyun stated, cheeks puffing out in a pout. The smile on his mother’s lips remained, while her eyebrows drew close together as she took one of his hands in her own._

_“Sweetie, the thing is… You won’t be able to have lunch with your friends during the school week.” Kihyun stepped back, yanking his hand from hers._

_“If that’s what home-schooled means, I don’t want it!” He exclaimed, the odd smile falling from his mother’s face. She opened her mouth to reply, the little boy bolting from the room before she had the chance to get another word out._

The harsh sound of a wrongly struck key snapped the dark-haired male from the memory, looking down at his still fingers. He wasn’t sure how long his attention had been fixed downward, lifting his head when he heard a voice call out to him.

“Kihyun, are you feeling alright?” Lips pulled into the best smile he could manage, and he turned his eyes back to the sheet music in front of him, starting the page over.

“Of course, mom, my finger just slipped,” he assured her, feeling her eyes locked on the back of his neck even after he reached out to turn to the next page of his book. “Is there something you needed?” he asked in turn, picturing the way she was likely fussing with her lower lip using her teeth.

“No, it’s nothing. I like watching you play.” The lie fell so easily from his mother’s mouth, Kihyun’s smile falling from his own. “Your dad will be home soon, come help me set the table,” she added, Kihyun’s shoulders relaxing as the notes filling the room came to an end and he closed the key case, fingers lingering over the smooth texture.

He knew he wasn’t the only child in his family that had watchful parents- one of his cousins had it worse with how often he got sick. That didn’t make things any easier, and he was often left wondering if this was normal. Most often his theory was no, considering how few children were subjected to being home-schooled; not to mention how weird his friends thought it was that he was learning English when he was seven. He had also been playing the piano since shortly after turning six giving him little time outside of school to run around with the other children in the neighborhood let alone the ones he made friends with in school for the first couple years he was allowed to attend.

He hadn’t set foot in a classroom in close to nine years, as much as he hoped to go to the same middle or high school as his old friend Yoongi if the other even lived around the town anymore. He was also pretty sure that most parents didn’t stare at their children as if they were some kind of alien creature when they did weird things that children did while figuring out the ways of the world. He didn’t think he would ever forget the panic his parents had been sent into when he licked a piece of chalk when he was three, or when he caught a firefly and brought it into the house to introduce it to them. It was as if they were there waiting for him to do something specific, while at the same time feared him doing whatever it was. Once when he was ten, his other cousin had told him about her parents; they were talking about her late at night, and she could only vaguely make out something along the lines of a sickness that their family got.

When he had in turn asked his granny about it, a sad look had entered her eyes and she patted him on the head telling him it was best not to worry – or tell his parents what he had been told. The latter part of her warning unsettled him, but the old woman had never steered him wrong in his eighteen years. What would make her start now? Turning on the piano bench, Kihyun stood, making his way from the room and to the kitchen, silent as he aided his mother in setting up for dinner.

_“Why is a raven like a writing desk?” he felt himself ask, the figure with a blurred face getting closer though their face didn’t become any clearer, and they instead passed him without a reply. They didn’t even seem to notice he was standing there trying to get their attention._

_What was making him ask random people riddles? Let alone ones that didn’t make sense while something stirred inside him to answer his own riddle. Was it even his own? The voice coming from his mouth was much deeper that how he thought himself to sound… What was going on? He continued down the street, pausing outside an antique shop that had a couple of full-body mirrors in the main display window, flinching a little when his reflection was nowhere to be seen. His eyes closed against his will, feeling his shoulders rise with a deep breath, and when they opened once again there was a strange tanned skinned figure in the mirror, cheeks bunched up as he smiled, eyes turning to crescents._

_“Mommy that man has bunny ears!” His attention shifted to the little girl tugging at her mother’s hand, pointing at him with her other, and he found himself kneeling down in front of her._

_“Are you Alice?” The blank faced child tilted her head to the side, quickly pulled away from him to continue down the street and he stood, watching the two of them fade in the distance. “Alice, where are you?” he heard himself ask softly, crossing the street as car horns blared and he startled awake. _

“‘Alice’?” he mumbled, pushing himself up into a sitting position. “Who’s Alice? I don’t know an Alice,” he continued, sliding his legs out from under his comforter, rubbing the bottom of his feet against the soft but cold carpet as he blinked his eyes into focus. The soft rattle of the door handle was the only warning he got before his bedroom door opened, his mother looking around the room as she peeked her head inside.

“Kihyunnie, are you… alone in here?” She asked, and his eyebrows scrunched together a little as he looked to her.

“Who else would I have in here?” he asked in return, pulling his cold feet back under the covers to cross his legs under them, facing his mother.

“I heard you talking to someone.”

“Mom, I’m not allowed outside of the estate grounds. Who would I be hiding in my room, I don’t know anyone,” he argued with a small irritated huff. Fussing with her lip she looked around the room once more, nodding as if she had finally decided that he was telling the truth and there wasn’t someone curled in one of the corners of his room, though her expression didn’t relax.

“Are you feeling alright this morning?”

“Aside from a weird dream, yeah I’m fine.” He tensed as soon as the words left his lips, groaning at the interrogation he knew would follow his reply, rubbing his face with one had as his mother entered the room and sat on the foot of his bed.

“Weird dream? What was it about? What made it weird?” she fired off question after question, reaching out to touch his forehead, assessing if he had a fever or not and he pushed her hands away, frowning up at her, thinking as fast as he could.

“Mom, it’s not something that I want to talk to you about.” Her expression turned from worry to shock.

“Kihyunnie, you can talk to me about anything, no matter what it is I’ll always be here to listen to you,” she stated, the dark-haired male gripping at the cover sheet of his bed.

“Mom, I don’t want to talk about it,” he tried again, cutting her off when she started to speak. “Mom, I am a growing boy, considered an adult to almost everyone. And as such, there are certain things that boys my age don’t want to talk to their moms about, and that is completely normal.” His voice was slow, doing his best to keep it firm as he felt a fire dusting his cheeks. His mother stared at him with an almost blank expression before she coughed a little, breaking eye contact, standing and stepping out of his room turning back to him as she took hold of the door handle.

“I’ll go get your father, how about that?” She asked, shutting the door before he could even open his mouth to start to reply and he groaned, flopping back onto his pillow.

_Alice, whoever you are, I hope you don’t have hover parents like I do who watch you even when you sleep,_ he thought, tilting his head back to look at the morning sky through the window of the wall that the head of his bed was pressed up against. Perhaps if he pushed his dresser in front of his door he could get out and be far from the estate by the time that either of his parents were able to get inside to ask him why he had barricaded his door? The knock on his door pulling him from his escape plan, looking to his father as the door opened, groaning a little- he had hoped that his mother wouldn’t actually go and get him, and he rolled onto his side, pulling the comforter over himself to hide.

After nearly a week of dreaming of himself as a black-haired man with weird bunny ears and his mother somehow managing to become even more of a hover parent than she had been for the last several years, the brunet felt himself snap. Dressing himself in a pair of plain denim jeans and a black long-sleeved shirt, he tugged on a pair of sneakers, attention falling to his dresser once he was finished. Getting on one side of it, he grabbed a hold of the top while his other palm pressed against the flat side, and he took small steps in his attempt to push it in front of his door as quietly as he could. With the squeak of the dresser legs against his wooden floor he wasn’t sure exactly how quiet it ended up being, but at least he found some reassurance in how heavy the piece of furniture was.

Turning his back to the bedroom door he set his sights on the window above his bed, crawling onto and over the top cover, standing once he reached the headboard, using it to help him stand on the plush mattress, unlocking and sliding the window open. He grabbed onto the windowsill, pushing himself up until he was able to hook one knee up onto it, slipping his other leg over the edge, looking around the back yard. Taking a deep breath as there was no one around – not like he expected someone to be – and let himself slip off the edge and onto the grass. One wall jumped, one to go, he thought, keeping himself low to the ground as he approached the cold grey wall that surrounded the entire estate, reaching up and frowning as only his fingertips were able to hook over the top. He knew the wall had always seemed too tall to get over, but from his room it looked like he had a chance.

Letting his arms drop he glanced along both sides, the well-kept grounds offering nothing for him to climb on for leverage. He turned a mildly irritated glance up, bending his knees and giving a hard push against the ground, grabbing onto the ledge while his feet dangled, unable to reach the ground anymore. The first couple of attempts he made to pull himself up didn’t get him far, almost scraping his nose against the gritty wall as his hands started to sting from the texture. His feet found their way to the surface, looking for any and every shred of resistance between the rubber of his shoes and the wall, pulling himself slowly up so he was able to lean the top half of his torso over the top of the wall. Once he saw the other side he hooked one arm, then the other over to hold onto the outer side of the estate wall, finding it a frightening balancing act to swing his right leg over while avoiding toppling to the foreign side. Pushing himself up into a sitting position while straddling the wall he looked over the grounds once more, carefully slipping his left leg over as he turned, back to the house, taking one more deep breath before he pushed himself over the ledge.

A huff of breath left his lips as his feet hit the ground, stumbling a little from the force, looking up at the wall of the estate once he regained his balance. His open mouth pulled into a smile, a soft laugh falling from it as he stepped back, turning and making his way down the street. He had done it. He had really done it! He was beyond the border for the first time in- how long had it been? The brunet had lost track of the years that he had been kept inside, breaking out into a jog, putting more and more steps between himself and the prison his parents had locked him away in, eyes scanning over his surroundings to try and gather as much of it as he could.

Who knew how long he had before his parents noticed and sent out some kind of dramatic search party for him? One of the houses a few blocks down the road caught his eye, causing him to slow to a stop, hesitating for a long moment while he tried to remember how to get his legs to move and carry him up to the front door. It was an even longer pause between stopping and reaching out to knock on the door, stepping back once he had. He had only been waiting a moment when he heard muffled footsteps on the other side, causing him to perk up as the door was opened, eyes landing on a sheepish looking boy with short dark hair, only half of his face showing with how close he was standing to the door.

“Hi,” Kihyun started, holding up one had to give a little wave. “My name’s Yoo Kihyun. Does a boy by the name of Min Yoongi live here?” He asked, heart racing in his chest only to drop down to his stomach at the boy shaking his head.

“Gone. Moved away. We live here now.” The reply was just loud enough for Kihyun to hear, not making it any easier to take the news.

“Ah, alright. Thank you, I’m sorry for bothering you,” he said in return, offering another wave, turning and walking away from the house. Why had he thought that Yoongi would still be living in the same house? Just because his own family had lived in the estate for decades, if not centuries, didn’t mean that all families were going to be the same way. Still the news hurt, and he found the pep missing from his step as he continued down the road, both Yoongi’s house and the estate behind him. He ended up coming to another stop, staring down at the ground, then giving a harsh shake of his head.

So what if he wasn’t there anymore? That didn’t change the fact that here he was, on his own, for the first time. Lifting his head once more with the trace of a smile on his lips once more he continued towards the tall buildings with the assumption that was the way into the city. To say the city was louder than he expected it to be would be a drastic understatement, and the brunet found himself turning as he looked around, stumbling here, knocking into people there, losing track of how often he was offering apologies, eyes wide as if he would take in more of what he saw the wider they were. His foot even slipped off the curb, which ended up being a very good thing in that it got him to notice the crosswalk sign showing a red hand and he scrambled back up on the sidewalk as cars started zipping by him, and he let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair, then rubbed at his face.

When he opened his eyes, his vision was a little blurred, and he could have sworn that he saw someone in the crosswalk- rubbing at both of his eyes this time and blinking until they decided to focus, he felt his heart stop. Sitting in the middle of the crosswalk was a man with almost army-short black hair, looking like he was panting from exhaustion- but what stood out most was the floppy white rabbit ears. He didn’t seem bothered or concerned with his choice in a place to rest, the crosswalk soon flooding with people as the red hand turned to a white walking figure and Kihyun stiffly walked to the center of the crosswalk.

“I really don’t think that’s a good place to stop for a nap,” he stated, the figure looking up at him, making his heart jolt. That face- it was the same one that he had in those weird dreams he kept having, searching for whoever ‘Alice’ was. The rabbit-eared male stared at him for a second before his face lit up in a bright smile and he stood, turning to face the other.

“Alice!” he stated, Kihyun giving him a blank look.

“I’m- I’m sorry?” the brunet said, looking over his shoulder, finding no one behind him- as well as taking note that the timer on the crosswalk was nearing its end and he waved his hand to gesture the strange man to follow him out of the middle of the road. The other followed him, slow enough for Kihyun to start to panic about him getting hit by one of the cars, but fast enough to actually make it in time. Letting out a sigh of relief, he looked up at the tall bunny-eared male. “Why were you sitting in the middle of the road?” he demanded, the high-cheeked smile never wavering.

“I was looking for you.”

“I have no idea who you are, so how were you looking for me? Did my parents send you?” he asked, dread creeping into his stomach. Had they found his empty bed already? He took a step back from the black-haired male, watching the way confusion mixed with the look on his eyes, head cocking to the side a little.

“Parents?” he echoed, Kihyun eyeing him as dread turned to suspicion.

“Wait… Why were you looking for me? Who sent you?” The figure perked back up, confusion vanishing.

“I sent me, because I needed to find you, Alice.”

“My name isn’t Alice; I think you’re mixing me up with someone else. Glad to see that you’re not playing in traffic anymore, so I’m just gonna… go.” He stated, turning to walk away, the other’s voice making him freeze.

“How doth the crocodile improve his shining tail?”

“He pours water of the Nile on every golden scale.” Kihyun felt his lips move with the reply, one that made no sense to him, feeling foreign on his tongue while his mind itched as if searching for a long-lost memory. He stared at the black-haired male, who continued to simply smile at him, and Kihyun found himself taking a step back.

“Only Alice can offer the correct answer-” The words barely left the strange male’s mouth before Kihyun turned, running back down the road he had taken to get into town, slowing to a stop when his chest and legs began to burn and he bent in half at the waist, gripping his knees as he wheezed. He turned his head to look back the street, the panic that had bubbled up in his chest subsiding when he found it just as empty as it had been earlier when he had ventured towards the town. Coughing a little as he straightened up, Kihyun walked the short distance left to get to the wall of the Estate, starting the struggle of getting back over it and into his room once again.


	3. Curious and Curiouser

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The strange rabbit eared male shows up again, introducing Kihyun to someone far less excited by his existence.

After his interaction with the strange tan male, Kihyun had expected the dreams of trying to find ‘Alice’ would have only gotten worse, unsure if he should find comfort in the fact that they came to a sudden stop instead. Had his interaction with the white floppy eared male even happened? 

‘If the heart’s desire is strong enough, the mind is capable of creating a world in which the desire becomes real.’

His granny’s strange words circled around his mind, sitting in the garden, flipping to a new page in the sketchbook settled in his lap. Had it all been some kind of daydream? He wondered, eyes traveling around the garden, lingering on the wall that surrounded the estate. Had he really climbed such an un-textured surface? He didn’t see himself actually having the upper body strength to pull himself over the wall once, let alone a second time after being set into a panic and running. A soft snap had his attention drop back to the sketchpad, watching the broken end of his pencil roll down and fall off the pad, disappearing in the grass.

A sigh passed his lips, reaching for his pencil bag, digging around inside for the sharpener left inside, freezing at the splash that reached his ears, hesitant to turn his focus over to the pond on the opposite side of the yard from the wall Kihyun remembered climbing over so vividly. Aside from the slight ripples crossing the surface of the water there was nothing out of the ordinary, and Kihyun let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding.

‘Get a hold of yourself,’ he thought, inserting the broken end of his pencil into the sharpener, a faint squeak occurring as he twisted the tool. ‘The last thing you need is mom or dad seeing you jumping at shadows,’ he continued, examining the sharpness of his pencil, setting the sharpener back in the pouch before looking up at the pond once more- Coming almost nose-to-nose with a face that was quick to grow in familiarity, Kihyun yelping as he jerked back from the rabbit-eared figure now sitting in front of him. 

“What are you- How did you find me?” Kihyun demanded, watching the black-haired male shrug a little, confusion mixing with the alarm he felt when he noticed something drip from the male’s chin. He didn’t shrug, he was- shivering? “And why are you soaking wet?” Kihyun continued, eyes flickering between the male and the pond several feet away. The splash he heard… “Did you crawl out of our pond?” The shivering male’s head cocked to the side.

“Pond?” He echoed, finally offering a response to one of Kihyun’s questions, and the brunet pointed to the body of water, the other’s eyes following his gesture. “Oh. Yes, I came out of the pool.”

“That’s not a pool, it’s a pond,” Kihyun corrected, the male meeting his eyes and Kihyun shook his head; what it was called was nowhere near the issue at the moment. “Why are you even here, how did you find me?” he asked again, the other continuing to shiver as he smiled brightly.

“I came through the looking glass to find you, Alice, and here you were right on the other side! I didn’t have to go searching for you again,” he explained, Kihyun glancing to the pond once more. Was there some tunnel that connected it to some other side? Did his family know? “Alice, you need to come with me,” the other male continued, snapping Kihyun from his thoughts, a frown tugging at his lips.

“I’m not going anywhere with you, unless it’s to the police to report you as some kind of stalker,” Kihyun stated, his words seeming to only induce further confusion for the strange male, who simply stared at him, unthreatened by the reply he got. “Why are you convinced that I need to go with you, anyway? You haven’t bothered to introduce yourself, and you keep calling me by the wrong name.” The other offered a bow of his head, bright smile returning.

“I am called Hyunwoo, known by the title of White Rabbit. I call you Alice because you are Alice. Only Alice would know the answer to the riddles created by Alice,” the black-haired male replied, Kihyun rolling his eyes. Opening his mouth to make another attempt to correct the rabbit eared male, he was cut off, Hyunwoo standing and offering a hand to help Kihyun to his own feet. “Please, Alice. Let me show you the pool, you’ll understand then,” he assured, Kihyun staring up at Hyunwoo.

If the day before had been something he had dreamed up, and the figure before him wasn’t real, there was no harm in going over to the pond, right? What was the worst that could happen, he would trip in and sit in the three feet of water. As long as the weirdo didn’t try drowning him everything would be fine. Reluctantly he took Hyunwoo’s hand, staggering a little at the force the other used to pull him to his feet, pulling his hand back once he was upright, following the dark haired male up to the pond, watching the other point at something in the water. He kept his eyes on Hyunwoo’s face as he stepped closer to the edge of the pond, hesitant to look where he was pointing. Kihyun had barely enough time to blink between feeling Hyunwoo take his hand, jumping into the pond, taking the brunet with him, and Kihyun’s eyes shut tightly as he braced himself for the impact of hitting the water and the muddy bottom of the pond.

Kihyun expected to sputter water when he felt his face break the surface, head spinning for several moments as he tried to steady himself, eyes remaining scrunched up even when he no longer felt water on his face... Or the rest of himself. He didn’t understand why moments after being dragged into it he felt nothing- aside from his feet flat on the ground. How was it that he was standing up right? And why did he feel so cold?

Letting his face relax, eyes opening shortly after only for what he saw to make his head spin again. In place of the blurred discomfort in his eyes he had grown accustomed to when opening his eyes under water, Kihyun found himself standing in a light grey stone walled hallway, one look over his clothing revealing himself to be completely dry. What was going on? His hand was taken once again, head spinning a little as he fought for balance, being dragged by his hand down the hall.

“Wh-where are we?” he asked, Hyunwoo looking back at him, slowing his pace when he seemed to realize how much of a struggle Kihyun was having keeping up.

“Wonderland, where else would the pool of tears have taken us?” he asked, Kihyun yanking his hand back. Wonderland? Now he was sure that he had imagined up the strange rabbit man who now had his head tilted a little to the side at the sudden halt Kihyun forced them to come to.

“Okay, now I’m sure that one or both of us is crazy,” he stated, Hyunwoo frowning a little.

“Crazy? No. Mad, yes, but we’re all mad here, especially the Hatter,” Hyunwoo replied, Kihyun feeling something itch at the back of his mind once again. The moment that Kihyun noticed that the black-haired male’s hand had relaxed enough, he pulled away, turning and bolting in the opposite direction just as he had last time the strange male had said something that felt like the ghost of a memory.

The problem he was faced this time was that he had no idea where he was going. At least with running back to the estate he had a clear shot, and a vague idea of when to stop. Here the hallways that his mind had created twisted and turned and he almost ran into the grey stone several times when the wall seemed to offer a turn only to be revealed as no more than an indentation. He continued past a few figures, their faces no more than blurs with how little focus he gave to them, eventually finding a dark brown wooden door down one of the hallways. Without a second thought he crashed into the smooth textured surface, pushing it open enough to press himself through, leaning back against it to force it closed once again.

Allowing himself a few moments to breathe, Kihyun closed his eyes, waiting for the burn in his chest to ease before opening them, mouth hanging open even as his panting stopped at the sight before him. Rows of flower beds lined the castle wall as far as he could see, and he stepped down onto the sand colored path, finding it firmer than he expected. Some of the plants that lined the pathways seemed familiar, yet at the same time didn’t quite look like what he was pretty sure they were meant to look like. Mostly in the fact that the blooming flowers all appeared healthy, while the stems they were attached to appeared to be an ashy white-grey color. It reminded him of when he was a child, trying to draw animals without being able to remember exactly what they looked like, and the end result came out… interesting.

One thing he did take notice of in the garden was how often one particular plant seemed to appear. The thin green stems contrasted against the others, delicate violet colored flowers blooming at the ends with oval shaped buds here and there. He pulled his eyes from the foliage, letting them fall onto the opening of a simple white colored archway, stepping in and stopping a about ten feet in when he met a wall like hedge, looking left then right to see pathways down each direction. Was it some kind of labyrinth? Kihyun flinched when he heard a voice, too muffled to make out, yet something had him inclined to believe it was Hyunwoo getting closer to finding him, and he took quick steps down the left pathway.

A turn here, another there, Kihyun had difficulty remembering what direction he had come from, gaze lifting to the tops of the walls for some kind of sign of where he was and where he wanted to go, fearing what would happen if he remained lost. Then again if Hyunwoo had been able to find him at the estate, he was sure that the strange male could find him anywhere, even in the furthest corner of this maze. It felt like he had been searching for a way out when he began debating giving up, hands finding their way to one of the walls, finding it more pliable than it looked. Could he just… walk through it? Closing his eyes he lifted on arm up to shield his face, pressing through the wall as his hair and clothing was tugged at by the branched of the hedge. Once free, Kihyun reached up to pull a few twigs from his hair, flinching when he heard a new voice.

“Would you mind explaining to me why you’ve decided to destroy my hedge maze?” Something told Kihyun that he had found the source of the colder temperature he was met with when he stepped out of the Looking Glass, or whatever it was that Hyunwoo had called it. Looking to his right he found a small light blue circular table with a tea set resting on a white tablecloth, and an icy-pink haired male sitting in one of the two chairs with a teacup raised almost to his lips. When their eyes met, the other male went from cocking an eyebrow, to narrowing his eyes a little, lowering the teacup to rest on the saucer in his other hand. 

“You’re not one of mine… You must be from the Red Kingdom,” he continued, setting the saucer onto the table before their eyes met again, silence settling between them. Red Kingdom? The corners of the male’s lips tugged downward, standing from his chair, fingers brushing over the tablecloth as he took a couple steps towards Kihyun, the brunet noticing the small black spade and club on his cheek bones, along with the white king chess piece hanging from his neck.

“Well? Out with it.”

“Out with what?”

“Your message.”

“What message?” Kihyun asked, earning a scoff from the other.

“Leave it to Minhyuk to find the stupidest suits to send on errands. They make him look like less of a wet candle,” the male muttered, stepping closer to Kihyun as the brunet backed up against the hedge he had cut through, the pink haired male holding out his hand. Kihyun turning his eyes up to the taller male’s face with what he hoped was less of a confused expression than he felt. “Your wrist.”

“Why do you want my wrist?” His question did nothing to ease the irritation in the light-haired male’s eyes.

“Why else?” Came the other male’s response, reaching out to take a firm grip of Kihyun’s right wrist, twisting it so his palm was up, tugging back the sleeve of his shirt, eyes narrowing at it, tightening his grip when Kihyun tried to yank his arm free. “A suit without a number?” The words came out softer, like the breath of a thought as his fingers eased and Kihyun managed to get his arm back, side stepping to place some distance between himself and the cold male before him. “Just what are you?” The male asked, Kihyun stepping away again, watching as his steps of retreat were met- he had never felt relief as he did when footsteps quickly approached and Hyunwoo rounded the corner, floppy white ears perking up a little at the sight of the pair.

“There you are, Alice!” He exclaimed, Kihyun’s relief short lived and he let out a groan as the light-haired male looked back to the new arrival.

“You know this numberless suit?” he asked, Hyunwoo jogging over to them, offering a bow, smile never leaving his lips.

“He’s not a suit, my Queen. He’s Alice.” The light-haired male arched an eyebrow.

“What’s an ‘Alice’?” He asked, Hyunwoo gesturing to Kihyun.

“Him. He’s Alice, and he’s going to fix everything, my Queen,” Hyunwoo answered, the Queen opening his mouth, Kihyun cutting in.

“Don’t you mean ‘King’?” The two turned their eyes to him.

“King?” Hyunwoo echoed.

“Yeah, the male version of a Queen.”

“Just where did you find this strange creature?” The Queen asked, attention turning to Hyunwoo as Kihyun shot him a glare.

“On the other side of the Looking Glass. He was sitting beside the Pool of Tears, and-”

“Oh Hyunwoo, not this again,” the Queen sighed, one hand coming up to pinch the bride of his nose, turning back towards the table he had been seated at earlier, Hyunwoo’s ears managing to droop more as he trailed behind the male.

“Really, my Queen! I went through the glass and on the-”

“Hyunwoo it’s just a mirror,” the Queen argued, voice raising a little, Hyunwoo’s head lowering and the large body seemed to shrink before the Queen, silent as the light-haired male took a seat once more. “I’ll ask you once more. Where did you find this ‘Alice’ creature?” Hyunwoo’s ears raised a little, only to fall as the Queen’s voice to sharpen once more as he picked up the saucer. “And do not lie to your Queen.”

“He’s not lying,” Kihyun stated, holding firm as he moved to stand beside the black- haired male, the Queen’s eyes on him again.

“You intend for me to believe that you came from one of the mirrors in my castle.” Kihyun gave a single nod, even if it seemed like a rhetorical question. “Hyunwoo, you’ve convinced this pitiful creature of enough foolishness for one day. Take him back to wherever it is you found him,” he continued, dismissing the pair with a wave of his hand, using it to then pick up his tea cup, eyes closing as he took a sip, Hyunwoo fidgeting where he stood.

“Please, my Queen-” The other’s eyes were on him once more, the look sending a chill through Kihyun.

“Have I been misunderstood?” The question came in an even tone, Kihyun watching Hyunwoo’s back straighten, and his ears swung a little as he shook his head.

“N-not at all, my Queen,” he stammered, turning and taking Kihyun by his arm, tugging on it to get the brunet to move with him. “Come now, let’s get you back to where you belong,” he continued, keeping his voice loud enough for the Queen to hear him as he guided Kihyun through and out of the hedge maze. Kihyun’s mind was reeling to the point that they were at the wooden door before he found enough sense to question the rabbit eared male.

“Wait, so you’re telling me that after all of this you’re giving up? After you wandered around town for who knows how long, after pulling me into my family’s pond, you’re backing down? Just like that?” He asked, Hyunwoo’s steps slowing to a stop a few feet from the mirror. “All because your ‘queen’ wouldn’t listen to you?” He continued, his arm released as the black-haired male turned to face him.

“Things may be different in your world, but here… the White and Red Queens’ word is law. We all have one that we serve, and therefore must obey,” Hyunwoo explained, Kihyun frowning a little at him.

“You took a while to back down for someone meant to simply obey a queen,” he pointed out, watching Hyunwoo’s gaze shift down a little, then to the mirror, following Hyunwoo as he moved over to it.

“I was hoping that once he saw you he would decide to take a chance… You’re my last hope for saving him.” The statement tugged at Kihyun’s heart, shifting to get a better look at the rabbit eared male’s face, Hyunwoo’s hand moving up to trace along the frame of the Looking Glass.

“He didn’t seem like the type to need saving to me. Not with the look he gave you for arguing with him.” Hyunwoo shook his head, a smile crossing his lips.

“My Queen is very strong. On the outside he may seem to be well but… The way he’s been acting lately has me worried… and that worry has only gotten worse as time passes and he spends more time alone. His focus leaves him during meal times and it’s become a rare event for him to finish his plate. I fear before long, the person he once was will be gone, and after that… He’ll be no more than a shell of himself.” 

“Okay… and how am I supposed to help in any of this?” Hyunwoo’s eyes returned to Kihyun’s face, ears perking up a little though the worry didn’t leave his eyes.

“Not long after my Queen started to show signs of illness that the suits were unable to diagnose, I was pacing through this very hallway. I kept thinking to myself, trying to come up with some way to ease whatever burden was troubling him when I passed by a sheet appearing to be hung up on the wall. When I pulled it away, the Looking Glass was hidden behind it with the words ‘Find Alice’ written on it, seeming to have been carved from the inside. And then when I reached out to touch the letters to check, my hand when through the glass as if I was reaching into a body of water. I believed the glass to be telling me how to save my Queen and where to go, so I stepped through it and ended up in the Pool of Tears, and began my search for you immediately.” Hyunwoo reached out, taking a hold of Kihyun’s hand, leaning forward a little.

“Please, Alice… Please say you’ll come back.”

“What?”

“Please!” Hyunwoo pleaded, giving Kihyun’s hand a small squeeze. “The Looking Glass wouldn’t have told me to find you if you weren’t the key to saving him.”

“And how exactly am I supposed to do that? If he’s unwilling to listen to you, what makes you think he’ll listen to me? In case you already forgot about the whole exchange that just happened I really don’t think he’s going to let me attempt anything.”

“He just needs time. It’s important, Alice. If anyone can do anything-”

“If I agree will you let me go home?” Hyunwoo blinked at the question, then nodded. “And will you stop calling me ‘Alice’? I don’t know how many times I have to state that my name isn’t ‘Alice’ before you understand.”

“But… if not ‘Alice’, then what is it that I should call you?”

“Kihyun,” the brunet stated, Hyunwoo nodding again. “Now that we have an understanding, I need to go home before my mother freaks out when she can’t find me, and thus never lets me out of her sight again. Because if that happens then I can never come to this place again, got it?” he continued, Hyunwoo finally releasing his hand, gesturing to the mirror.

“Take a deep breath and step through. It’ll take you right back to the Pool of Tears,” he explained, and Kihyun stepped closer, freezing when Hyunwoo’s hand was on his shoulder. “One more thing. Please do not attempt to enter Wonderland unless I am with you. We wouldn’t want you to be unable to return to your world, would we?” Kihyun opened his mouth to question the cryptic statement, or how the other knew something so specific when neither really seemed to grasp what was going on, only for the hand on his shoulder to shove him back through the mirror before he got anything out.

From the moment he lost his footing it was a struggle to regain it, opening his eyes only to squint through the blur of water. Curling his fingers in a cupping motion to pull himself towards the light source, letting out a large breath once his face broke the surface of the pond, coughing a little as he swam towards the edge to pull himself out, sitting on the edge as his legs remained in the cool water. There was no way any of that was real… A pond taking you to some alternate world? No. The cold feeling that had gone through him when he thought he had stepped out of a mirror must have been his skin picking up the temperature of the pond water. Sighing he reached up, running a hand through his soaked hair, flinching when he heard his mother call out his name.

Great. How was he going to explain his little pond adventure?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to get back into writing for this, but if people aren't exactly interested it might be hard to do. Which would also kinda suck, as I have 5 full chapters finished for it, and chapters planned through 12-15ish, so if people don't care for it, then I'll update a lot slower because I still wanna write it for myself. But that's what causes it to take 9 months to write one chapter, lol
> 
> So if you like it, comment or send me a message! Quarantine is lonely, lol. Chatting with people about stories gives me the serotonin I crave.


	4. Flowers that Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The eccentric white rabbit eared male shows up in Kihyun's room again, convinced that flowers are the only way to solve the White Queen's illness. Kihyun Reluctantly agrees to return to Wonderland

When Hyunwoo didn’t show up the next day, on top of Kihyun having dreams he would consider normal as they didn’t consist of him looking for ‘Alice’, the brunet started to truly believe that he had been imagining everything. It made more sense that way at least, and he had returned to his studies the following morning. When night came again, however, he found his dreams filled with soft murmurs, unable to make out more than a few words of what they uttered to each other. When he tried, it only resulted in a dull throb in his chest, heart lodging itself into his throat. Whatever was going on in his dream, nothing good would come out of it, and he found himself waking constantly throughout the night, hesitant to settle and let himself drift off again as he was unable to shake the whispers and feeling of dread.

It was an honest miracle that he was able to offer attention to his studies, convinced that it was a type of self-preservation as he was flipping lazily through one of three books spread out on his bed – the current topic: crossbreeding plants. He hadn’t questioned his mother when she handed it to him, as she seemed more on edge than usual since she had found him swimming around in their pond.

There was a tap on his window, encouraging him to look up from where he laid on his bed, staring for a moment when he didn’t see anything from the angle he was at, returning to his book momentarily when nothing happened. He was turning the next page when the sound happened again, choosing to ignore it, continuing his reading as the tapping increased in frequency, closing his book with a soft huff when the noise was almost constant. Tossing his book to the side he sat up, turning to face the window, scowl turning to a wide-eyed stare at the black-haired figure on the other side of the clear glass.

“Hyunwoo?” he asked, reaching up to slide the window open, shifting out of the way when Hyunwoo started climbing over the windowsill, tumbling through and flopping onto the bed with a slight bounce. “What are you doing here?” he asked, lowering his voice as his eyes flickered to his bedroom door, hurrying to close it.

“Alice, please, we must hurry.”

“For the last time stop. Calling. Me. Alice,” Kihyun’s whisper turned into more of a hiss, leaning back against the door. “And keep your voice down, if my mother sees you, she’s going to lose her mind,” he added, Hyunwoo’s head tilting a little to the side, but he nodded, and his voice softened.

“Al-Kihyun, we must hurry. My Queen, he- he’s gotten worse. My fear for his health grows with each day that passes.”

“What do you mean he’s gotten worse? It’s been three days, what did he do, up and start starving himself?” The black-haired male appeared confused, falling silent as he stared at Kihyun’s face.

“Three days? You’re mistaken. Kihyun it’s been three and a half weeks since I sent you home from Wonderland.” The statement had Kihyun letting out a laugh until he saw the serious expression remained on Hyunwoo’s face.

“Okay…” Kihyun started, the dreams he had been having starting to bubble up from the back of his mind, somehow the muffled voices becoming clear enough that he could recall what had been said. “He’s been hiding away in his room, hasn’t he?” Kihyun asked, earning a single nod from Hyunwoo. “The suits are getting worried like you are… they’re all becoming aware of just how much he isn’t behaving like himself-”

“Kihyun is everything alright?” The brunet felt the color drain from his face, looking back at the door.

“Yeah mom, everything’s fine!” he called, eyes darting back to Hyunwoo. “Hide,” he whispered, Hyunwoo’s head cocking to the side.

“Hide? Why would I need to hide?” The handle to Kihyun’s door jiggled, him having to lean back against it to keep it closed.

“Kihyun, sweetie, what’s going on?” His mother called through the door, Kihyun pointing to the comforter on his bed. 

“If you want me to help you, you have to get under that and lay down. And don’t move or say a word!” he pleaded, Hyunwoo following the order in a hurry and Kihyun staggered away from the door as his mother pushed it open.

“Why were you holding the door closed?” she asked, giving Kihyun a full look over, her gaze shifting around the room after, returning to Kihyun’s face before long.

“I kicked my blanket off the bed, and it got caught on something. I was trying to move it from the door before things got worse,” he offered with the most convincing smile he could muster up, his mother staring at him for a long moment, eyes traveling to the bed and Kihyun silently cursed himself as she stepped towards it, reaching for the cover that was – honestly doing a poor job at – hiding the large rabbit eared male. She took a hold of one corner of it, inspecting it and eventually pulling it halfway off of Hyunwoo, and Kihyun opened his mouth to offer an explanation, voice catching when his mother paid no attention to the strange male. Instead she hummed a little, releasing the blanket, running a hand over it to smooth it out, turning to face Kihyun once again.

“You’re sure that everything’s alright? You’ve had me worried these last few days,” she said, reaching out to cup his cheek, Hyunwoo sitting up out of the corner of Kihyun’s eye.

“I’ve told you, I’m fine. There’s nothing that you need to worry about mom,” he assured her, earning a hesitant nod as she lowered her hand from his face, wandering back to the door. She turned back to scan over the room one last time, offering Kihyun a small smile as she stepped out, only closing the door a few inches. When he could no longer hear her footsteps, he hurried back to the door to close it, facing Hyunwoo.

“Who was that?”

“I think the better question is why she couldn’t see you!” Kihyun exclaimed as loudly as he dared.

“Because I did not choose for her to.” Kihyun groaned a little at the vague answer, sliding down to sit in front of the door, rubbing at his face.

“What is that supposed to mean? That you’re only choosing for me to see you?” Hyunwoo shook his head.

“As Alice you are able to see me when others can and cannot. It’s one of the signs that you’re Alice, along with your answer to the riddles.”

“Riddles? Like that weird question you asked when we first ran into each other?” Hyunwoo nodded, cheeks bunching up as he smiled.

“Exactly. If you were not Alice then you wouldn’t have known the answer, and you wouldn’t have seen me when I grew tired of making myself visible to the others of your world.” Kihyun started rubbing at his temples, biting back a groan. This was all getting so confusing, and the fact that his mother paid no attention to Hyunwoo only encouraged him to believe the other male to be a figment of his imagination again. The likelihood seemed to only be growing, and he pushed himself back to his feet, Hyunwoo scooting closer to him on the bed.

“You’ll come now, right?” He asked, a hint of desperation returning to his voice and Kihyun sighed.

“I guess if I tell you no then I’m basically lying to myself,” he mumbled, Hyunwoo’s head cocking to the side before Kihyun gestured to the open window. “We can’t go through the door, my mom’s going to freak out if she sees me trying to go outside again,” he continued, Hyunwoo nodding again. He stood carefully on the mattress, slipping out of the window much easier than he had fallen in, Kihyun not bothering to look back as he followed Hyunwoo, dropping to the grass with a soft grunt. “We don’t have to go through the pond again, do we?” Kihyun asked, looking over the black-haired male’s appearance. He wasn’t soaked from head-to-toe as he had been last time, something the Kihyun found a little odd, trailing behind him as he made way towards the pond.

“After bringing you to meet my Queen the last time, he ordered for the Looking Glass to be put on watch, which makes me inclined to believe that he knows you’re Alice. He’s being stubborn in now allowing you to help though, thus I had to find a new way to your world,” he explained, and Kihyun found himself frowning slightly as his hand was taken. 

“Can’t we go back the way you came then?” He asked, earning a shrug.

“The pool of tears is much faster,” the rabbit eared male concluded, pulling Kihyun into the pond with him once again. Kihyun took a gasp of air the moment he stumbled into the hallway again, wiping at his face as the wet feeling left him, Hyunwoo releasing hold of his hand as Kihyun regained his bearings, glancing at the suit who appeared shocked by their sudden appearance. When Kihyun looked up at the other male, Hyunwoo smiled brightly, tugging on the sleeve of Kihyun’s shirt to lead him in the opposite direction that the brunet remembered running off in the last time, Kihyun taking long strides to keep up with Hyunwoo’s excited pace.

“Are you sure that I’m even going to be able to get near him, let alone do anything to help him feel… better? You were there last time, first he thought I was some failure of a messenger and then he thought I was some random idiot playing along with your fantasy,” he pointed out, frowning a little once the words had left his mouth. “Wait… There’s no way he sent you to get me. He didn’t seem to know much about what an ‘Alice’ was, other than it being something that you believed in that he didn’t, so aren’t you going against his orders again?” he pointed out, Hyunwoo turning his head back to meet his eyes, not offering a response. “You still haven’t explained to me how I’m supposed to achieve anything that you think I’m capable of. I’m pretty sure I’ll just end up making things worse when it comes to your Queen- whom I don’t even know the name of yet. And I doubt that he wants me calling him ‘my Queen’ as you do since he knows that I don’t belong here.” Kihyun paused to breathe in the cooler air, Hyunwoo stopping his steps and facing the shorter male.

“Until he offers you his name it would be best to refer to him as ‘your Majesty’.” Kihyun rolled his eyes, looking down at the hand now on his arm. “If we’re going to get him to trust you, it’s imperative that you act like one of us,” Hyunwoo stressed, Kihyun’s shoulders drooping a little as he sighed, nodding.

“Fine, I’ll play his dumb little game if it gets me home before my parents start to freak out. Which apparently is longer than I think it should be if you’re convinced it’s been three weeks since I was dragged here for the first time.” The comment had Hyunwoo smiling, and thus Kihyun relaxed and returned the expression with one of his own.

“Time in your world is so strange,” Hyunwoo said, and Kihyun couldn’t help but laugh.

“Really? You’re going to bring up my world being strange? You have rabbit ears.” Hyunwoo’s eyebrows knit together, a slight pout crossing his lips as he reached out to touch one of the white floppy ears.

“They’re normal here.”

“None of the others here have them,” Kihyun pointed out, giggling after. “Imagine your queen trying to look all serious with big floppy rabbit ears dangling over his shoulders,” he continued, Hyunwoo biting back a smile as they were approached by someone in a black and white suit. The figure bowed his head as he faced Hyunwoo, pulling the black-haired male’s attention to him.

“The Queen requests your presence in the garden. He’s had several spades searching the castle for you.” Hyunwoo offered a nod, then a slight bow of his head, starting back in the direction they had come from, Kihyun keeping close as they passed the Looking Glass.

“Does he spend all of his time in the garden?” Kihyun asked, Hyunwoo pushing open the large wooden door with ease, closing it behind the brunet. The taller male didn’t have a chance to respond as the light-haired figure in question was only a few feet away from the door. His hand was outstretched, twisting the stem of a wilted bud between his fingers, his gaze shifting to the pair a moment later- eyes narrowing at the sight of, likely, Kihyun.

“How is it that you have managed to keep you head after failing to deliver your message?” Well, looked like the chance of him forgetting who Kihyun was and starting everything all over had gone out the window. Before he could reply though, Hyunwoo stepped closer, bright smile back in place.

“It’s good to see you out of your room, my Queen,” he stated, offering enough of a distraction and the light-haired male turned back to the plant his fingers were toying with, Kihyun leaning to the side to look around Hyunwoo, a somber expression on the queen’s face.

“The Clubs haven’t been taking care of my garden as they should be,” he replied, hand finally falling from the wilted flower, turning and making way to and through the archway of the hedge maze, the wilted bud fluttering to the ground. Hyunwoo’s shoulders drooped, and Kihyun watched him kneel down to pick up the fallen bud, examining it in his palm. The darker haired male turned to face the brunet a moment later, holding it out to him. Looking at the shriveled violet petals, Kihyun reached out and took the offering, rolling it around in his own palm, eyebrows knitting together a little.

“So- you have crappy gardeners. What do you want me to do about that? I’m not a botanist,” he stated, eyes meeting Hyunwoo’s again though the other was only confused by the term. “I’m not a plant doctor,” he simplified, examining the bud again. “But from the looks of it they’re just not getting enough water. That’s usually the biggest problem, over or under watering.”

“But they started wilting like this when my Queen started falling ill. The worse he gets, the more noticeable the wilting becomes.”

“Ever think that the clubs are focused more on him because he’s sick, and thus they’re falling short on their duties to manage the garden?” Hyunwoo paused, eyes scanning over the garden, though he didn’t really seem to be looking at the garden itself.

“A cycle causing a downfall,” he murmured, and it was Kihyun’s turn to be confused.

“Doesn’t that seem sort of… you know, extreme?” he asked, almost flinching at how immediate Hyunwoo’s eyes were on him. “Do you really think that the queen is getting sick because his garden isn’t perfect?”

“It may seem silly to you, but these flowers are one of the few things that bring my Queen happiness.”

“If they’re so important then why doesn’t he take care of them himself?” Hyunwoo opened his mouth to answer, Kihyun shaking his head, pushing aside the question for a new one. “Do you actually think that if I fix these flowers, it’ll fix the queen?” he asked, Hyunwoo nodding excitedly. “And you really think that he’s going to let me do anything to something that means so much to him that it makes him physically ill.” Hyunwoo’s nodding slowly stopped, lips forming a slight frown.

“That’s what I thought,” the brunet sighed, flinching a little at how suddenly his arm was taken hostage again, stumbling to keep his balance as the rabbit-eared male headed to and through the archway of the hedge maze. Kihyun couldn’t help but wonder just how many times the taller male had to have gone through it to have the path to the Queen’s tea table memorized, the table and light pink haired male coming into view without a single wrong turn. As they approached the table Kihyun watched the delicate hands of a black-haired girl sprinkling dried violet petals into the teapot beside the queen, resulting in a soft scoff from him.

“If you’re just turning them into tea then why does it matter if they get all dried out?” The queen’s unamused expression met Kihyun’s for a brief moment before he was focused on Hyunwoo.

“Where have you been disappearing to these last few weeks? You’re gone for hours at a time without warning… You know as well as I do how talk can travel along these halls,” the Queen said, Hyunwoo straightening his posture a little, only for Kihyun to cut back in.

“You know, some flowers wither when they’re not watered enough, while others drown incredibly easy.” Kihyun was fairly sure that the queen almost looked to him again, noticing the faint twitch of the light-haired male’s finger on the table. “There is also the chance of an invasive species, insect or plant, that’s attacking the roots, eating away at the plants themselves… if not taking away the needed nutrients from the soil. No one would be able to just see this looking at the appearance of the flowers, likely making them panic and water the plants more and more, loosening the soil around their roots and causing their foundations to crumble around-” There was a harsh clink as the queen set his tea cup down on to the matching saucer.

“Just what is it that makes a suit-less creature like yourself think you know more about my garden than myself or my Clubs?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at Kihyun as they were finally on the brunet’s face, remaining locked there even as Hyunwoo cleared his throat.

“I’ve been searching for someone to heal your garden, my Queen," he stated, a sarcastically amused look flashing through the Queen's eyes.

"And you somehow came to the decision that this thing was fit for the task?" Hyunwoo gave a single, definite nod, Kihyun glancing between the two and offering a shrug.

"If what I do helps then things will be fine, and your gardeners will learn a few things. If not- well, your garden is already dying, so it would put the plants out of their misery." The look Hyunwoo gave him had the vibe that the last part wasn't the smartest thing to say, but the queen kept insulting him. Was he expected to just take it and be fine with it?

"So you plan to fail."

"Of course not."

"What benefit does our Queen receive if you do?" the black-haired servant asked, Kihyun biting at the inside of his lip as he thought.

"If things get worse, he can punish me however he chooses." The Queen looked Kihyun up and down once again, jaw tight when he finally spoke.

"Fine. I advise you not fail," he said, Hyunwoo relaxing, offering a bright smile to the light-haired male.

"You'll surely not be disappointed, my Queen," he stated, though the other male appeared less than convinced, and the black-haired girl leaned closer to him.

"Shall I gather a group of Clubs to watch over him in your garden?" She asked, the Queen's eyes finally leaving Kihyun's face, falling to his teacup, raising it to his lips.

“Considering the state of which they’ve let my garden fall in to, I trust their competence as much as I trust this creature’s. I shall personally keep track of his task in my garden,” the Queen concluded, the black-haired girl nodding and stepping back from the male’s side. “You may begin tomorrow morning,” he continued, and Kihyun frowned slightly, causing him to arch an eyebrow. “Do you have a disagreement with my order?” He asked, and Kihyun looked to Hyunwoo for help. What was tomorrow morning in his own time? A couple of hours? He couldn’t just keep disappearing every couple of hours, even if it was only for a few minutes in his own time, his mother would decide to drain the pond if she continued to find him regularly soaking wet beside it.

“It is difficult to know how long his other tasks are, and when he is able to pull away from them to come and tend to the garden,” the dark haired male offered, earning an arched eyebrow from the Queen, looking far from amused by the reply.

“He will start tomorrow morning, or he shall be punished,” he stated simply and Kihyun rolled his eyes as Hyunwoo bowed his head.

“Yes, my Queen,” he agreed, leading Kihyun back through the maze. Once far enough, Kihyun turned his frown up to the taller male.

“Okay, if I’m going to have to come and go on his terms, then I’m not returning through the pond. Got it? I don’t care if it’s easier, you have to find a different way to get me home or I’m going to get caught and I’ll never be able to come back,” he stated firmly and Hyunwoo nodded, gesturing for the other to follow him out of the castle and into the woods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any guesses for which member is the White Queen?


	5. Painting the Roses... Blue?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kihyun has his first session with tending to the White Queen's garden. It goes about as well as he expected.

Hyunwoo had taken Kihyun just outside the front of the castle, where there was a large hollow space that seemed to have been carved out of the base of one of the trees, big enough for even the larger rabbit eared male to fit in if he crawled in on his hands and knees. Kihyun was sure that the confusion had been completely clear on his face, though he got down on all fours and wormed his way inside, expecting to hit the other side of the trunk almost immediately, startled when the light behind him had vanished and his head knocked against something hard. He groaned, backing out of the trunk slowly, turning to ask Hyunwoo if this was meant as a joke, finding the forest he had just been in replaced with his backyard and he looked to the tree trunk again with wide eyes.

Getting up he dusted off the dirt from his pants, making his way back inside, grabbing the book he had been reading about crossbreeding, flipping through it to the beginning to find the basic tip section, shaking his head a bit as he settled to read. A couple hours of reading passed, and when he heard another set of knocking he glanced up at his window, more surprised when his bedroom door opened instead and he pulled on a smile to greet his mother with, nodding when she explained that dinner was ready. Following her out of the room Kihyun went straight to setting up the table for his mother, father and himself, bringing the dishes of prepared to food to the center of it just as his father joined them in the dining room. It wasn’t until they were all settled in their places that anyone spoke, Kihyun lifted his gaze to his mother, seated across from him.

“How is studying going?” She inquired, the dark-haired male lowering his eyes to his plate once more. 

“Fine, I guess. Nothing special, I mostly was focusing on the two botany books that you gave me to read, thinking that it would make my time in the garden carry more meaning if I knew how to tend to the plants better. I think fresh air would do me some good, and I’ve grown bored of drawing the same scenery for the last several years.” Out of his peripheral vision he was fairly sure that his mother was fussing with her lower lip using her teeth, his suspicion confirmed when he heard a disapproving click of his father’s tongue.

“We know that you tire of spending so much time in the estate, but neither of us have the time to take you on outings these days.”

“Why can’t I go out on my own then?” Kihyun retorted, turning his head to meet his father’s eyes, lips parting to follow up the statement, only for his voice to catch at the figure standing behind the sliding glass door a few feet from his father’s chair. Hyunwoo’s ears were bouncing much more, his arms flailing about his large figure as if he had been trying to capture Kihyun’s attention for a long time. It took him a moment to remember that neither of his parents would be able to see the strange figure unless he wanted them to- praying that Hyunwoo wouldn’t choose to do so in order to get Kihyun to come along with him. Was it really the next morning in Wonderland? There was no way, he had been there three hours ago, and it had appeared to be the middle of the day there… then again, three days had turned to three weeks, so Kihyun probably shouldn’t have been as surprised as he was.

“Kihyun?” He flinched at the call of his name, focus flickering to his mother’s face and the suspicion that was apparent on it. “Are you not going to answer your father?” she asked, Kihyun feeling his stomach sink as he had no clue what the question could have been.

“No, I’m not,” was the best answer he could give, hearing his father sigh, shaking his head.

“I told you he wasn’t ready,” His father said, and Kihyun dropped his gaze to his plate, scooting back in his chair when Hyunwoo began knocking on the glass.

“May I be excused?” He felt both pairs of eyes on him, and as much as he should have been used to it by now it made his skin crawl.

“You’ve hardly touched your dinner… are you feeling alright?”

“I’m fine, I’m just… Not feeling hungry I guess.”

“If you don’t eat now, you’re going to have to wait until breakfast in the morning to eat,” his father lightly threatened, and Kihyun nodded, pushing further back from the table, standing and tucking his chair back in.

“Understood,” he mumbled, quickly exiting the dining room and heading back to his room, closing the door behind himself without hesitation. He wasn’t surprised in the slightest when he saw Hyunwoo standing outside his bedroom window, opening it and not bothering to invite the other in, slipping out instead.

“Who were those you were sitting with?” Hyunwoo asked, following Kihyun’s quick strides towards the pond with ease, and the brunet male’s shoulders sunk as he sighed.

“My overprotective parents,” he replied though the term ‘parents’ still appeared to be lost on the rabbit eared male, Kihyun gesturing towards to pond. “Gonna push me again, or do I have to jump in myself this time?” He asked in turn, the black-haired male perking up slightly, taking a gentler hold of Kihyun’s arm this time, pulling them both into the pond.

If he wasn’t so used to it from his parents, Kihyun probably would have been more annoyed by the way the Queen was allowing him less than two feet of breathing room, save for when the brunet would turn to drop dead leaves and trimmed stems into a small bucket, moving gradually alone the rows of various ash colored vines. He had to rely more so on the feel of the plants rather than the color, seeing how they naturally appeared a weak color, and he had to swallow back a laugh when he could hear a sharp breath sucked in between the Queen’s teeth from time to time as he worked. By the time he had finished lightly pruning the dozens of rows of wilting plants, the sun was high overhead, oddly doing nothing to warm the frigid air that hung around the light-haired male hovering around him as he worked. Standing from the final bed of flowers he brushed his palms together to dust the dirt off them, hands coming to rest on his hips as he turned to face the Queen.

“Alright, as long as they’re watered after the sun sets in evening and as it’s rising in the morning they should start to perk back up in a couple of days,” he stated, starting to think that the skeptical, resting bitch face that the other was giving him was simply the way his face was stuck.

“And you’re willing to bet your life on that?” The Queen asked, Kihyun rolling his eyes in response, reaching down to pick up the bucket of debris.

“If you really wanted me dead, I’m pretty sure you’d already have had your way, your Majesty,” he replied, watching the other squint at him, lips parting only for a deeper voice to interrupt him.

“Your garden is already looking much less pained, My Queen,” Hyunwoo stated, ears perked up right as he glanced between the two. “We should allow Alice-”

“-Kihyun.”

“-to get cleaned up now. The spades have prepared lunch with him in mind and set up the dining hall in order to accommodate him,” the black-haired male continued, leaving Kihyun wondering if he was going to ever actually call him by his name more than once in a blue moon. The Queen’s irritation appeared to fade slightly at the other joining them waving a hand as he did to dismiss the people he called ‘suits’, assuming that the gesture was meant towards him, encouraging another eyeroll from the brunet who in turn followed after Hyunwoo to get cleaned up.

Once the dirt had been fully removed from even the crevices underneath his fingernails, Hyunwoo ushered Kihyun from the washroom tucked in the corner of a guestroom, a change of clothing folded neatly on the bed, a stark contrasting white shirt paired with a simple black vest and slacks. When the arched brow he gave Hyunwoo was met with a soft encouraging smile, Kihyun picked up the clothing, disappearing once more into the washroom to get changed. He folded his original clothing, leaving it on the closed lid of the toilet. Once he had changed into the light grey button up and black slacks, he stepped back out into the room, watching as the black-haired male chose to then gesture towards the door leading back out of the room.

He kept close to the taller figure, finding that the more time he spent in the castle the more he was sure that he would become horribly lost if left on his own, the monotonous colors offering little help and lack of décor left no guidance of landmarks. As they approached a set of tall double doors the pair of suits standing at the hinge corners turned to face one another, taking steps in tandem towards the center, pushing the doors open for Hyunwoo and Kihyun to pass through and into the dining hall. The light-haired male looked so strange sitting alone at one end of the table centered in the room, seats in place for nearly thirty people while place settings for only three were located at the end where the Queen was seated.

“Did he throw giant dinner parties before his precious plants started dying?” Kihyun asked in a low voice, though the question only resulted in a confused look from Hyunwoo. The shorter brunet didn’t bother pressing for an answer as he took a seat, the rabbit-eared male sitting across from him, smile returning as he looked to the Queen, a few suit soon entering to place a bowl of soup in front of each of them. Kihyun watched closely as Hyunwoo waited for the Queen to start eating before he did, following the action in silence, choking slightly at the question that came once Hyunwoo had finished his bowl first.

“This is like the way you were sitting with those others when I went to pick you up this morning,” he stated in a bright tone that was quick to turn curious. “Who was it that you were seated with?”

“Those were my parents, the ones I keep mentioning to you.” Hyunwoo’s cheeks bunched slightly, causing his eyes to form slight crescent shapes as he leaned forward.

“What are ‘parents’? They don’t act like the suits do, and if I didn’t know any better I would think they were of the same tiered status as my Queen, but they have no markings,” the other rattled on, Kihyun biting back a comment about how he didn’t think that Hyunwoo knew better about anything from his home.

“They’re a lot more like prison keepers, with how close they keep an eye on me.”

“And why is it that they feel the need to watch your every move? Have you managed to dislodge their trust in the integrity of your actions?” The Queen asked, the sudden addition to the conversation catching the brunet off guard, both his and Hyunwoo’s eyes moving over to him. 

“They’ve kept a close eye on me for years. For some reason they’re convinced that I’m going to suddenly go crazy for no factual reason,” Kihyun replied, deciding that it would be best not to mention the curse that the Yoo family had believed in for decades; at least not until he was sure that he had gained the Queen’s trust.

“So even your own kingdom doesn’t trust you?” The light-haired male pressed, eyes narrowing slightly while Hyunwoo sighed at the hinted accusation, ears drooping as he set down his cutlery.

“My Queen, please. I’m sure that there’s as much reason for them to worry about Kihyun’s health and safety, as there is for those residing here to worry about yours,” he countered, the corners of the Queen’s lips turned down in a soft frown and the two shared a long stare that ended in the light-haired male getting up from his seat.

“I’m retiring for the afternoon.” Hyunwoo tensed, standing as if it would get the other to change his mind as he reached out to take a limp hold of the other’s elbow.

“My Queen, you’ve hardly eaten. Please stay and finish your-” The black-haired male was cut off by the sharp look the other male gave him, pulling his arm free with ease.

“I am retiring for the afternoon,” he repeated, and even Kihyun felt a slight shiver from the chill in his voice, watching as he exited through the same door that Hyunwoo had lead Kihyun into the dining hall through, opened by a different pair of suits posted on the inside. Letting himself drop back into his seat with a sigh, Hyunwoo’s attention was cast down at his bowl until the brunet spoke up a few long seconds later.

“The plants should start getting better in a couple of days, so that means he’ll start acting like his old self again, if your theory is right,” he pointed out, doing his best to sound encouraging as he offered a smile once the rabbit-eared male finally looked up from his bowl, Kihyun watching as he tried to match the expression. With a nod, Hyunwoo looked back down at the remnants of his soup, Kihyun pushing his own aside once it had become cold and the taste was no longer pleasant on his pallet.

“I believe I should go check on my Queen, wait here. I’ll be back before long to help you home,” Hyunwoo stated to fill another bout of silence, Kihyun watching as he stood and followed after the Queen’s cold trail, leaving the brunet feeling more alone than he had in a while even as one of the suits entered from a different door to clear away the used bowls from the table. His eyes scanned over the figure, comparing it to his own, trying to understand what it was about the male that made the White Queen mistake him for one.

He was dressed in a dark grey button-down shirt, black vest and matching pants; much like the outfit that Hyunwoo had given him to change into after working in the garden. The cuffs of his shirt were folded back enough to show a black spade about the size of Kihyun’s thumbnail with the number eight above it, reminding him of not only a deck of cards but also one of the markings on the White Queen’s cheeks. It had the brunet wondering if there were other suits with the club on their wrist in the same fashion, deciding that wasn’t what he would ask about once he found his voice.

“How long-ah, sorry,” Kihyun said, noticing the way the suit seemed startled by the sudden voice, raising his attention to the unfamiliar figure. “How long has the Queen been, you know… acting in a way that’s got you all so worried?” He asked, watching the other tilt his head from one side to the other as he mulled over the question.

“I believe we’ve all lost track of how many full moons have passed since our Queen’s health began to decline. It’s been such a gradual change, most of the suits didn’t believe the White Rabbit when he initially voiced his concern for our Queen… I’m sure that if you asked the White Rabbit, he would have a more defined timeline with how close he used to keep to our Queen.”

“Used to? He seems like he clings to your Queen still, considering he just hurried off to check on him,” Kihyun countered, the suit giving a single nod.

“It may be difficult to picture it as you’re unfamiliar with our Kingdom, but a couple moons ago our Queen was rarely alone, even when he slept,” the suit stated, causing Kihyun’s eyebrows to knit together.

“What changed?” He asked, confused by the smile that the other gave him.

“The White Rabbit got it in his head that he needed to find something outside the Kingdom to heal our Queen. He began traveling out to the forest, bringing back things he found, most recently a mirror… And then a few weeks ago, he decided whatever ‘Alice’ was, that it or they were the key to healing our Queen. Thus, he began spending time searching, to find you, despite our Queen telling him that you didn’t exist. I apologize, but I must go now.”

Kihyun nodded as the suit dismissed himself, heading to what he assumed was the kitchen, his attention turning back to the main entrance of the dining hall, getting up from his own chair as he grew tired of waiting, wondering how quick Hyunwoo would be to notice he had headed home on his own. The black-haired male had only ever told him not to come to Wonderland without him, he never said anything about going home on his own, and he was confident he could find the Looking Glass- even if he didn’t enjoy the idea of hiding soaking wet clothing considering his parents thought he was in his bedroom.

At least, he hoped that time was slow enough in his own world that they still thought such, as he hadn’t bothered to barricade his door in order to hide him missing from his room. The growing possibility of them discovering otherwise only encouraged him to hurry the pace of his steps, deciding it was in his better interest to go through the hole in the tree, which he needed Hyunwoo for considering how vast the forest outside the castle was. He was sure he would get so lost that he’d collapse from hunger before managing to find the correct tree, though as he was passing the various doors in a maze of hallways he was starting to consider the forest instead- if he could even find his way out of the castle in the first place.

Concern was starting to leak into his stomach when he caught sight of door open just a crack, sure that he could bother whoever was inside for directions, fingers brushing against the door, freezing before he could open it any further when he realized he found the black-haired male he was in search for. What caused him to hold back on pushing open the door was the realization that it was the only set of double doors he had come across aside from those leading to the garden and the dining hall… As well as the fact that the rabbit-eared male was standing intimately close to the light-haired Queen, the pair of voices fading in as the brunet shifted closer to the opening, eyebrows knitting together as he did his best to sort out the context.

“Please, Hyungwon... Don’t you want to know why it holds meaning?” Hyunwoo asked, appearing to have his fingers curled around the white chess piece that hung from the Queen’s neck, surprising Kihyun when he didn’t pull away, instead lifting a pained expression up to meet the other’s.

“You’re the only one that believes that numberless suit has anything to do with this,” Hyungwon stated, causing Hyunwoo to slowly release the white chess piece, bowing his head as he took a step back.

“If your garden begins to flourish as it did before, will you finally refer to him as more than a suit? The fact that he has no number should be enough to prove that he isn’t like the rest of them… the rest of us. He’s different. He’ll fix everything, Hyungwon… I’m sure of it,” the black-haired male stated, perking up until he met Hyungwon’s expression, and his ears drooped.

“Hyunwoo, you’re the one that’s convinced there’s something wrong. And it’s all in your head,” the light-haired male concluded, his own hand coming it to shield the white chess piece when Hyunwoo reached for it again, turning away from the other. “Now, go take that silly thing back to where you brought it from,” he ordered, voice much weaker than Kihyun had heard it so far, causing a strange ache to spark through his chest. Hyunwoo took a couple of steps back, bowing to the Queen, silently dismissing himself before heading towards the door, causing Kihyun to tense. He was quick to move away from the crack he had been peeking through, getting as far back down the hall as he could in the time it took the rabbit-eared male to exit the room.

“Al-Kihyun… Are you ready to head back home?” He asked, head tilting to the side a bit as the brunet turned back to face him, trying for a smile as he nodded.

“Yeah, I was, uh- looking for you to help me get back,” Kihyun answered, managing to keep his voice even, watching Hyunwoo step past him in order to lead the way out of the castle, the brunet trying to make more of a mental note this time as to the location of the tree with the rabbit hole hidden inside.


End file.
